


Dangerous Books

by SlowMercury



Category: Fruits Basket, Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Book Signings, Community: no_true_pair, Gen, Maps, Storms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 05:36:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3369764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlowMercury/pseuds/SlowMercury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah clutched her copy of “Lavender Love Love Surprise, Volume 4” grimly and stared out the window into the pouring rain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dangerous Books

Sarah clutched her copy of “Lavender Love Love Surprise, Volume 4” grimly and stared out the window into the pouring rain. If Shigure Sohma grabbed the weather as an excuse and didn’t come to this book signing, either... 

But he did come. Sohma might not have intended to visit this event, but his editor (a twitchy looking woman whom Sarah recognized from her research into the author) dragged him firmly by the collar. His entrance was greeted by the loud squealing of an entire bookstore full of excited schoolgirls. Sarah slipped quietly to the back of the line of fans and waited.

As the evening wore on, the line wound down. It was a school night, and these kids probably all had class tomorrow; Sarah was the oldest fan present by at least six years, but she could definitely remember being that age. Finally, Sarah was at the front of the line and there was no one behind her.

“Hello, you lovely blossom of womanhood!” Sohma said brightly. “What can I do for a princess such as yourself?”

Sarah suppressed the urge to say _It’s Queen, actually_ just to see what reaction she'd get. She was long past her tendency to blurt things out without thinking them through. She handed Sohma her copy of “Lavender Love Love Surprise” and he signed it, beaming a smile that was _just_ this side of shady. He seemed kind of lecherous, but Sarah had the odd feeling he wasn’t really focused on her.

“I wanted to talk about a book you wrote a while back,” Sarah said.

Sohma continued smiling at her in his friendly if vague manner. “I'd love to discuss my work with such a cute admirer!”

“You wrote it under the pen name Hans Cousteau,” Sarah said, and suddenly she had Sohma’s full attention. 

“Ah,” he said slowly, dropping the smile. “I wasn't aware that anyone knew I had used that pen name.”

“Yes,” Sarah agreed. “It was very difficult to trace, but I had motivation. And I... picked up some tricks.”

“I see,” Sohma said. “Perhaps we should discuss this elsewhere.”

 

They ended up in a bar drinking coffee. It was too cold for anything else except maybe hot chocolate, but Sohma said he never drank hot cocoa unless his ward made it.

“I was wondering, Mr. Sohma,” Sarah said, “why you wrote _Labyrinth_.”

“It was a commission,” the author said after a pause long enough to make Sarah wonder if he was going to reply at all. “Twenty years ago on a night a lot like this one—rain falling in sheets, howling winds, lightning, power outages, the works—all of a sudden a tall man with tight pants appeared in front of me. He offered me a bargain.”

“Really.” _That sneaky bastard._ “Please, go on.” 

“Jareth told me,” and it was a jolt hearing the Goblin King’s name from someone else's mouth, even when she already knew it was him, “that if I wrote him a special play, he would give me information which I needed very badly.”

“I see,” Sarah said. She wanted to know what information was important enough to take that kind of risk—but it was none of her business so she didn’t ask. 

“May I ask why you’re so curious about this book? It must have taken you quite a lot of effort to get here. Your accent’s American, isn't it? And here you are in Japan.”

Sarah’s lips quirked up in a self-deprecating smile. “When I was younger and much stupider, I was such a big fan of the play that I said some words I should not have; things got very bad. Although it did eventually all work out for the best, I always wondered where you got the idea for it.” 

Sohma looked stricken for an instant before he covered his expression with a small, cynical smirk. “So the book was a trap, then. That does make sense. I never could figure out why his majesty wanted a play in the first place.”

Sarah tilted her head consideringly. “No,” she said slowly. “It wasn't a trap.”

Sohma’s sardonic expression didn’t waver. “Oh? What was it, then? What else could have made you look me up? Something tells me you’re not a true devotee of ‘Lavender Love Love Surprise.’”

Sarah snorted. “I didn't come all the way out to Japan to accuse you of tricking me or ruining my life or something, you know. Everything that happened was my own fault.” 

Somewhere in the back of Sohma’s eyes, Sarah saw faint, incredulous hope.

“I came here to thank you, Shigure Sohma,” Sarah said. “Your book helped guide me through some very rough patches in my life. No,” she repeated thoughtfully. “It wasn’t a trap at all. Your book was a map.”

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in 2009 for the [no_true_pair community](http://asylums.insanejournal.com/no_true_pair/) for the prompt "It was a dark and stormy night--"


End file.
